Occasionally, going about my business some day, I wake up, surprised to find myself again in the present moment. I had of course not been altogether asleep since the last time, but it feels kind of like it. Suddenly, one moment it is all clear and present and very real, and I'm very clear and present. The strange part about it is the recognition that it is the same place where I was before. Exactly the same awareness. But "before" is, like, 10 years ago, or 40, or a thousand. But there's no doubt I was there before.

That feels shocking. Like when you've driven home from work in your car, while thinking about something else, and you suddenly find yourself in your garage, having no clue what happened along the way, as you weren't really there.

It doesn't have to be an enlightening spiritual thing, although sometimes it is. Might just be to recognize and remember something. A smell I knew as a child, and suddenly it is there again 40 years later, and there's a package of sensations and thoughts that go with it. Where was it hiding during all that time?

Or a person, of course. You look into their eyes, and, bing, you recognize them. You're there with them again, despite that you just met. It is the same, even though everything is different.